Break out of the courtyard

Zhang Long met Xie Jia's gaze with a smile and nodded, "Years ago, there were no restrictions on monogamy in Hong Kong; my mother felt that she couldn't help my father in business, so she brought a stepmother into the family."

“Since then, my mother has been in charge of the household, and my stepmother has been in charge of the company, which has given my father time to focus on his research.”

Few people know that Zhang Heping and Tang Xin divorced in 1978.

Afterwards, although Tang Xin and Zhang Heping's other identity, "Zhang Ping'an," obtained a marriage certificate, it remained a hidden danger.

It wasn't until 93, on the day Tang Xin turned 50, that Zhang Heping handed over the new polygamous marriage certificate issued to him by the Governor's Office to Tang Xin, thus resolving the potential property disputes within their family and the external risk of bigamy.

The changes in the marital relationship between Zhang Heping, Tang Xin, and Chen Shuting were never told to their children. They always thought that their parents and stepmothers were just like the concubines in the Tang, He, and Bao families, products of the times.

"If Hong Kong Island were to return to China and a one-man-one-woman system were required, what would your parents and stepmothers do?" Xie Jia asked again, posing a sharp question.

Xie Wan and Xie Ting, who were standing nearby, wanted to speak, but were stopped by the looks from their mother, elder brother, and sister-in-law.

“My second aunt said that after Hong Kong’s return to China, the legal system of Hong Kong will be used.” Zhang Long said with a smile, “I believe they will not make things difficult for our family over such a small matter.”

The phrase "making things difficult for our family" might not seem like much at first glance.

But upon closer examination, one can detect an undeniable air of confidence and arrogance within it.

If Zhang Long were to foolishly answer with something like, "At worst, I'll just immigrate," then their relationship with the Xie sisters would be over.

But this answer made Xie Jia think more highly of him.

In short, they first brought up their second aunt, who will remain as Deputy Secretary of Justice, then talked about the future rule of law in Hong Kong, and finally subtly demonstrated their family's confidence.

Although it may imply "immigration," it is phrased very elegantly, suggesting that the initiative in this matter is in the hands of certain people, and that if they are pressured too much, it will make things difficult for the Zhang family.

Whatever reaction the Zhang family makes at that time will be a result of being forced into a corner.

“My dad once told Grandma Wang two things about monogamy,” Zhang Hu said seriously. “One was that some Hong Kong businessmen built factories in the mainland and kept some factory girls as mistresses.”

"Secondly, a wealthy man in mainland China held multiple weddings and married multiple wives, but did not obtain a marriage certificate with any of the women."

“My dad said that if this had happened in the early 1980s, he would have been treated as a hooligan! As for now, well…”

Zhang Hu's final cold laugh seemed to mock Xie Jia for asking such a ridiculous question.

But from another perspective, it reveals something else: times have changed!
If Xie Jia and He Fang hadn't noticed this change, they would never have agreed to their daughter associating with the capitalist's son.

Just as the atmosphere in the private room became a little awkward, the restaurant waiters started bringing in the dishes. He Fang took this opportunity to change the subject and asked about the rest of the Zhang family.

Although Zhang Long and Zhang Hu are rather homebodies, they are not fools. They don't reveal all about their family situation, only giving harmless details.

Just as the banquet was drawing to a close and everyone had put down their chopsticks, Xie Jia spoke again, asking:
"Zhang Long just said that your stepmother manages the company alone. I'm a little curious, do you ever have conflicts in your family over financial issues?"

This is practically asking Zhang Long and his friends if they'll fight over the family fortune!

Faced with this question that seemed complicated to outsiders, Zhang Long smiled and shook his head without thinking, saying, "Uncle, many people have actually asked my mother similar questions."

"It's just that I'm worried that my stepmother will control the finances, which might cause some unpleasant family disputes."

“When my father first established the Peace Group, he foresaw all the problems and imposed restrictions on the company’s structure and systems.”

"However, we don't understand the company's affairs. All we need to do each year is check whether the dividends have been deposited into our accounts."

Zhang Hu, recalling how his elder brother had poured money into a Hong Kong technology company, turning himself into a heavily indebted man, couldn't help but laugh and say, "As long as we don't start businesses recklessly, we won't have to worry about money."

The idea that rich kids start businesses recklessly is not yet popular, leaving the Xie family members completely confused.

Xie Qiang, the future brother-in-law, suddenly blurted out, "Would you guys go to Macau to gamble?"

Zhang Long laughed and said, "We dare to go, but those casinos don't dare to let us sit at their tables."

"Did Uncle Zhang speak to those casinos and forbid you from gambling?" Xie Qiang thought he had figured out the answer.

“No!” Zhang Long said with a smile, “When we were kids, my dad took our family to several casinos in Macau. We won a lot of chips, but we never cashed them out.”

"Then, those casinos understood what my dad meant and from then on, they put my siblings and me on a blacklist of VIPs."

Xie Qiang hadn't expected this reason and asked in astonishment, "How much money did Uncle Zhang win from them that made them give up on you guys...?"

"A big fat sheep!" Zhang Hu replied with a smile, which made the others smile involuntarily.

"You should have seen movies like God of Gamblers, Saint of Gamblers, and King of Gamblers!" Zhang Long explained with a smile when Xie Qiang nodded.
“Art imitates life. My dad could easily do the same thing in those movies where people win a casino, but he didn’t want to get involved in the casino business, so he didn’t exchange those chips.”

"Since you don't have to worry about money..." the Xie family asked meaningfully, "Have you thought about what you want to do in the future?"

“There are so many things we want to do!” Zhang Hu said quickly. “In the short term, our task is to help my dad develop a brain-computer interface project.”

"Then we will overcome the challenges of large-scale brain-computer interface, and even global and galaxy-level network connectivity."

"After that, there will be a lunar base, a Mars base..."

Zhang Long kicked Zhang Hu and laughed, "Many of these are confidential projects. Please keep them a secret, Uncle, Aunt, Brother Qiang, and Sister Bei. Just pretend we didn't say anything."

With that, the banquet came to an end.

As the event was ending, Zhang Long again invited Xie Jia and He Fang to visit Shenzhen, but they only gave polite responses and did not give a clear answer.

When the group arrived outside the restaurant, Xie Jia pointed to two Hongqi sedans parked by the roadside and politely declined Zhang Long's offer to send them off.

The Xie family returned home in their company car, closed the door, and talked for a while longer, but then left the conversation unfinished.

After completing their mission, Zhang Long and Zhang Hu video-chatted with their mother, Tang Xin, from the car to report on their handling of the evening's events.

Although Tang Xin didn't hear any definite news about when their parents would meet, she was still much happier than last night.

If the Xie family really doesn't invite her son to a banquet, even if Tang Xin doesn't consider herself a petty mother-in-law, she will still develop a prejudice against the two girls, Xie Wan and Xie Ting.

Fortunately, things went smoothly, and although there were some unsatisfactory aspects, they were not serious.

However, when Zhang Long and Zhang Hu said they would go home early the next morning, Tang Xin refused them, telling them to stay in the capital for a few more days and wait to return with their uncle, cousin, and other relatives.

……

While Zhang Long and Zhang Hu were bored in the capital, their father was busy replying to emails from various research institutions and holding video conferences from time to time. With the Spring Festival holiday approaching, many research institutions were not meeting their expected progress, but Director Zhang of the World Advanced Technology Research Institute insisted that they take a break.

So the research units turned their questions to Dean Zhang, wanting to see if he could have a peaceful New Year.

In fact, Zhang Heping has the answers to many research projects. The reason why Zhang Heping lets them conduct research is not only to accumulate experimental data, but more importantly, to prevent a technological gap.

With the advanced technology that Zhang Heping has acquired through AFK farming, he could easily advance existing technology by a century.

However, this would mean losing the research experience accumulated over the past century, creating a talent gap, and having to start many things from scratch.

Therefore, Zhang Heping has been dealing with mostly guiding suggestions recently, and rarely giving direct advice.

Even so, this has prompted many research institutions to accelerate their research and development, and at the same time, they have dared to give their researchers time off.

On the evening of February 15th, at the Space Technology Laboratory of the Shenzhen World Advanced Technology Research Institute.

Researchers in China, studying the levitation hammer in Area 51 in the United States, are still making their final efforts.

"Dean Zhang, our research is just getting on track. It's okay if we don't go home for the Spring Festival this year, really!"

"Dean Zhang, I can testify that not going home for the Spring Festival this year was a decision made by a collective vote of all our researchers. It was all voluntary, and no researcher was forced."

Voluntary is utter bullshit!

He Zheng, whom Zhang Heping sent, alone could not possibly disobey his decision.

“It’s 22:05 p.m. now. If even one of you fails to board your flight back home in 1 hour and 55 minutes, it will cause a diplomatic incident!” After saying this, Zhang Heping immediately ended the video call in the laboratory and instructed the Space-Based Computing Center to shut down the access channel from the United States.

There's definitely something wrong with those researchers not returning to their home countries.

Zhang Heping didn't care which of them had been bribed by the Americans; he only cared about what information they could bring back and whether it could help him develop his new AFK (away from keyboard) skills.

This matter should have been handled by Mr. Qian, but because it was too late, Zhang Heping notified Secretary Chen to send someone to follow up first and then relay the message to Mr. Qian the next morning.

Compared to the various research projects Zhang Heping is currently in charge of, the importance coefficient of the levitation hammer research project is not even in the top 100, so Zhang Heping does not want to waste time on those researchers who went to magnesium.

But the research projects at the Space Technology Laboratory are different!
Qian Xuesen wanted to include 53 of his research projects in a top-secret project, but Zhang Heping refused.

According to Zhang Heping, the research experiments here are only considered teaching experiments and there is no need to keep them secret internally.

"That's all for today!" Zhang Heping said loudly to the researchers and assistants in the laboratory, "You've all worked hard lately. After you pick up your New Year's gifts from the logistics department tomorrow morning, take a good rest, spend more time with your families, and spend less time in the virtual learning dream of the library."

An old physics expert joked, "Dean, we're all on holiday, so you can't tell us whether we go to the library or not!"

"Mr. Zhao, please watch your words!" a young male assistant chimed in. "Be careful the dean doesn't close the library too, hehe!"

"Stop being cheeky!" Zhang Heping waved and left. "Get some rest. There will be even more research projects after the New Year, and I'll have less and less time to come here to answer your questions. You should cherish this precious holiday!"

Zhang Heping left the laboratory, casually took off the white coat covering him, and handed it to the bodyguard next to him to put in the wardrobe.

"Has the genius training camp ended?" Zhang Heping asked casually.

The head of the bodyguards following behind hurriedly stepped forward and replied, "The event ended about ten minutes ago, and Miss Fourth has already gone home!"

Zhang Heping nodded slightly and then said, "Tomorrow, after your team changes shifts, don't forget to go to the logistics department to pick up your New Year's gifts."

"On behalf of my brothers, thank you, boss!" the bodyguard captain replied with a smile.

"Get some rest when you get home!" Zhang Heping turned to the young man who had been with him for over ten years, raised his right hand to pat the man's shoulder, and said in a deep voice, "Don't resist the work of the police!"

"You're already a manager in the company. You need to think from the company's perspective about why you were assigned to the police force!"

“Boss, we know this transformation is very important to the company!” The 30-year-old bodyguard captain said solemnly, “But we would rather stay by your side. Even if we no longer have guns and can only use sticks, we will still do our best to ensure your security.”

"Whatever you want!" Zhang Heping patted the other person's shoulder again before withdrawing his hand and walking forward with it behind his back.

The security training dream has been running for a long time, and that's the downside. It makes these bodyguards so used to being bodyguards that many of them are unwilling to become Hong Kong police officers.

It's not because the salary difference is too big!

Wei Chunqiao has already made it clear to them that if they go to work as bodyguards in the police force, their families can get a high-paying, easy job.

This operation would be plausible even if the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) of Hong Kong Island were to investigate it.

It's just that the bodyguards' prolonged use of dream-hypnosis during security training made them subconsciously resistant to other tasks.

The next morning, after the guards confirmed that no one was inside any of the laboratories at the World Institute of Advanced Technology, the doors were sealed.

A small number of experts and professors who wanted to return to their hometowns for the Spring Festival were escorted by guards who were on vacation and going in the same direction, and their airfare and fuel costs were fully reimbursed.

On this day, the academy became much more popular.

Many experts and professors, who are not seen during the day, also appeared on basketball courts, ping-pong tables, and other places.

Around 21 p.m., the experts who had gone to the magnesium plant returned to Shenzhen via Hong Kong Island.

He Zheng followed Secretary Chen over and reported to Zhang Heping and Zhang Yi about their situation in the United States that very night.

As for the professors who conspired with others and did not want to return to China for the Chinese New Year, the matter was handed over to Secretary Chen to arrange for someone to investigate them.

After Zhang Yi saw Secretary Chen and He Zheng off, Zhang Heping stayed in his study, looking through the documents He Zheng had brought back for a long time, until his two wives came to invite him.

Another day slipped by quietly. On the day before New Year's Eve, Zhang Long and Zhang Hu, along with Chang Sheng, Chang Wen, and others, arrived in Shenzhen, bringing with them many local specialties from the capital.

Some of those local specialties were gifts received by Zhang Long and Zhang Hu in return, and some were brought by Chang Sheng through others; they bought very few for themselves.

"Third Uncle, we want to go to Huadu to see my mother. Could you help us arrange a car?" Chang Wen approached Zhang Heping and shook his left hand.

"Who's going over? Did you call your mom?" Zhang Heping smiled and glanced at his brother-in-law, not expecting that the other party couldn't even wait this long.

Chang Wen replied with a smile, "It's just me and my dad going. My mom agreed, and we'll be back together tomorrow!"

"Let your dad go over there, you can leave it at that!" Zhang Heping beckoned to a bodyguard, gave him a brief instruction, and then arranged for two bodyguards to accompany him.

Chang Wen hadn't originally planned to go to Huadu; it was mainly because her father was too embarrassed to ask for a car, so he asked her to put in charge. (End of Chapter)